What's New on ScienceBlogs.de, July 17-23

This post isn't going to appear weekly anymore—instead, we'll be posting news from ScienceBlogs.de to Page 3.14 irregularly, as it breaks—but we're going out with a bang: these four superlative stories that made headlines this week at our European partner site, ScienceBlogs.de.

STOP: This Conference is Closed To Journalists
The well known stem cell researcher Hans Schöller suddenly stopped his lecture at an international conference in Berlin last week, because of journalists who joined the conference.

He was furious because of a recently published report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The article claims that Schöller devalorized results of his colleagues Gerd Hasenfuss and Wolfgang Engel during another conference. After the article a public dispute between researchers and Schöller erupted and led Schöller to the conclusion that the journalist is the one to blame: His report, said Schöller, was incorrect. And therefore Schöller claimed that he would ban journalists from conferences.

It was a hot topic for science journalists and science blogger Marcus Anhäuser whose posts "No muzzle for journalists" and "Should journalists stay outside?" caused lots of discussions.

Two Runners Dead After Storm Overtakes Extreme Zugspitze Race
Ten days ago two people died because of snowfall and storms during a run on Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze. They died of exhaustion and hypothermia. Frank Abel is quite sure the extreme weather was foreseeable and takes another look at the forecasts before the running event started.

"We had predicted temperatures between +28 to +25 degrees Fahrenheit at 1.8 miles altitude; the expected wind speed was 46 to 59 miles per hour, which means wind chill temperatures from -4 to -15 degrees Fahrenheit. ...For me it is absolutely incomprehensible how an organiser should allow athletes to run in shorts and tee shirts under these conditions."

Climate Change Increases Kidney Diseases
The warmer the environment gets the more people suffer from kidney stones—a new worldwide problem. Jürgen Schönstein writes:

"This is probably the most specific scientific forecast concerning climate change I've heard so far: Global warming will increase the number of kidney stones in the U.S. within the next four decades by 30 percent."

Hairy Magnetic Field Lines in Space
Ludmila Carone writes in her blog: This video actually shows the strange behavior of magnetic field lines in space. This is absolutely not unusual for planetary researchers ;-).

Magnetic Movie from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

The description on Vimeo says: "The secret lives of invisible magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries. All action takes place around NASA's Space Sciences Laboratories, UC Berkeley, to recordings of space scientists describing their discoveries. Actual VLF audio recordings control the evolution of the fields as they delve into our inaudible surroundings, revealing recurrent 'whistlers' produced by fleeting electrons. Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?"

That's all for now. Note that links in this article are to blog posts in German—but their authors are usually happy to respond to comments in English. Danke!

This newsletter is compiled by ScienceBlogs.de managing editor Beatrice Lugger.

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